Revealed! The 23 best players NOT going to the World Cup this summer

Video-game giants EA crunched numbers from the world's top leagues to select 23 men whose countries haven't made it to Brazil

Never say Dai: Bale and Wales can be world champions in EA's official Brazil 2014 game

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

What could be a better celebration of the greatest football talent across the globe, than a World Cup in Brazil?

With names like Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez and Neymar set to grace a tournament that will boast the biggest television audience EVER, it will be remembered as the carnival of stars in Rio .

Yet for all the talent on show, with only 32 nations involved, there are some unfortunates who are inevitably left behind, and between them, they could put together a squad to outrank even the might of the Brazilians.

To celebrate the launch of their FIFA World Cup 2014 game, EA Sports have taken data from the world’s top leagues and developed a statistical model that scores player performance in areas related to their position on the pitch.

The info was then crunched to put together the ultimate 23-man squad of players whose countries will NOT be at the 2014 FIFA World Cup... to publicise the rather handy opportunity to take any nation to the finals in their computer simulation that means Gareth Bale can lift the World Cup in a living room near you.

And while it comes as no surprise that Bale and Zlatan Ibrahimovich are included in their squad, there are others who are not quite so well known... such as an Icelandic goal-poacher plying his trade in Holland!

(Photo: Mike Hewitt)

He may not yet be a worldwide name, but after this summer, despite missing out on the chance to advertise his talents on the biggest stage of all, Iceland’s Alfred Finnbogason will probably be rather more widely recognised, given he wants a move to a big club from little Dutch side Heerenveen.

And the stats back up his ambition, by placing him firmly alongside Swedish star Ibrahimovich and Bayern Munich-bound Robert Lewandowski of Poland, both of whom will be watching on the telly this summer.

In fact, he tops the statistical model for strikers, which could well make him the hottest property of the summer transfer market, with several Premier League clubs keeping tabs.

The Premier League tops the table of stars not at the World Cup, with no fewer than six players making the EA squad, with Martin Skrtel of Liverpool, Chelsea pair Petr Cech and Branislav Ivanovic joining Norwich’s Swede Martin Olsson and Ireland’s rising Everton star Seamus Coleman, while Aaron Ramsey makes it a Welsh double alongside Bale.

(Photo: Andrew Powell)

Interestingly, two Liverpool targets in recent months make the list, with last summer’s top name Henrikh Mkhitaryan - who eventually signed for Dortmund, and represents Armenia - joining Roma’s Moroccan defender Mehdi Benatia, who is a target this time around.

In all, it makes a fascinating read, and FIFA could do worse than invite the squad to their tournament to ensure all the best players in the world are present.

Who knows, perhaps they could play the winners in an exhibition shoot-out afterwards...

Now there’s a money-making idea.

Stats: The BEST players NOT going to the World Cup

EA's full squad of Brazil 2014 non-qualifiers

GOALKEEPERS

Samir Handanovic (Slovenia)

Petr Cech (Czech)

Kossi Agassa (Togo)

FULL-BACKS

Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia)

Martin Olsson (Sweden)

Seamus Coleman (Rep of Ire)

Papa Souare (Senegal)

CENTRE-BACKS

Mehdi Benatia (Morocco)

Marko Basa (Montenegro)

Cedric Mongongu (Congo)

Martin Skrtel (Slovakia)

MIDFIELD

Juan Arango (Venezuela)

Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Armenia)

Aaron Ramsey (Wales)

Mateusz Klich (Poland)

Szabolcs Huszti (Hungary)

Jefferson Farfan (Peru)

Gareth Bale (Wales)

Lasse Schone (Denmark)

STRIKERS

Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)

Robert Lewandowski (Poland)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)

EA SPORTS 2014 FIFA World Cup is OUT NOW on Xbox 360 and PS3. Watch Gareth Bale’s World Cup Dream at http://ea.vg/1lPifkG